The works of Bernard which present his mystical
theology are the Degrees of Humility and Pride, a sermon addressed to
the clergy, entitled Conversion, the treatise on Loving God, his
Sermons on the Canticles, and his hymns. The author’s intimate
acquaintance with the Scriptures is shown on almost every page. He has
all the books at his command and quotation follows quotation with great
rapidity. Bernard enjoyed the highest reputation among his
contemporaries as an expounder of the inner life, as his letters
written in answer to questions show. Harnack calls him the religious
genius of the twelfth century, the leader of his age, the greatest
preacher Germany had ever heard. In matters of religious contemplation
he called him a new Augustine, Augustinus redivivus.14261426Dogmengesch., III. 301, 305. For Bernard’s
acquaintance with Scripture, see Ries, pp. 11 sq.

The practical instinct excluded the speculative
element from Bernard as worldly ambition excluded the mystical element
from Abaelard. Bernard had the warmest respect for the Apostle Paul and
greatly admired Augustine as "the mightiest hammer of the heretics" and
"the pillar of the Church."14271427 Ries, pp. 9, 15.It is better that one perish than that unity
perish."14281428Omnia vestra in caritate
fiant,
Ep., 221. Melius est ut unus pereat quam unitas,
Ep., 102; Migne, 182. 257.

Prayer and personal sanctity, according to
Bernard, are the ways to the knowledge of God, and not disputation. The
saint, not the disputant, comprehends God.14291429Non ea disputatio comprehendit sed
sanctitas,
quoting Eph., III., 18. Sancti comprehendunt. De
consid., V. 14; Migne, 182. 804.l ethical
principles of theology. The conventual life, with its vigils and
fastings, is not an end but a means to develop these two fundamental
Christian virtues.14301430Ep., 142, 2; Migne, 182, 297. Dr. Philip Schaff said that
"love and humility were the crowning traits of Bernard’s
character."Lit. and Poetry, p. 232. the sense that all the monks were perfect.14311431 Ries, pp. 35, sqq.

The treatise on Loving God asserts that God will
be known in the measure in which He is loved. Writing to Cardinal
Haimeric, who had inquired "why and how God is to be loved," Bernard
replied. "The exciting cause of love to God, is God Himself. The
measure of love to God is to love God without measure.14321432Causa diligendi Deum Deus est, modus sine
modo diligere.
De dilig. Deo. 1. Migne, 182. 974.liever
does not know, are inexpressibly more precious and call upon man to
exercise an infinite and measureless love, for God is infinite and
measureless. The soul is great in the proportion in which it loves
God."14331433In Cant., p. 919, as quoted by Ries, p.
212.

Love grows with our apprehension of God’s
love. As the soul contemplates the cross it is itself pierced with the
sword of love, as when it is said in the Canticles, II. 5. "I am sick
from love." Love towards God has its reward, but love loves without
reference to reward. True love is sufficient unto itself. To be fully
absorbed by love is to be deified.14341434Sic affici deificari
est. Bernard does
not shrink from the use of this word as also Origen and Gregory of
Nyssa did not, and other Fathers who used it or its Greek
equivalent.nsfused by the light of the sun, becomes itself like the light,
and seems to be as the sun itself, even so all feeling in the saint is
wholly transfused by God’s will, and God becomes all and in
all.

In Bernard’s eighty-six Sermons on the Song
of Solomon, we have a continuous apostrophe to love, the love of God
and the soul’s love to God. As sermons they stand out like the
Petite Carême of Massillon among the great collections of the
French pulpit. Bernard reached only the first verse of the third
chapter. His exposition, which is written in Latin, revels in the
tropical imagery of this favorite book of the Middle Ages. Everything
is allegorized. The very words are exuberant allegories. And yet there
is not a single sensual or unchaste suggestion in all the extended
treatment. As for the historical and literal meaning, Bernard rejects
all suggestion of it as unworthy of Holy Scripture and worthy only of
the Jews, who have this veil before their faces.14351435Serm., LXXV. 2; LXIII. 1; LXXIII. 1,
2.f the love between the Church and Christ, though sometimes
the soul, and even the Virgin Mary, is put in the place of the
Shulamite. The kiss of SS. 1:2 is the Holy Spirit whom the second
person of the Trinity reveals.14361436Serm., VIII. Migne, p. 810.e the goodness
and longsuffering which Christ feels and dispenses, Rom. 2:4. The Canticles are a song commemorating
the grace of holy affection and the sacrament of eternal matrimony.14371437Divinitus inspiratus Christi et ecclesiae laudes, et sacri amoris
gratiam et aeterni connubii cecinit sacramenta, etc. Serm., I. 8.; Migne, p.
788.; no one can hear who does not love, for the language of love
is a barbarous tongue to him who does not love, even as Greek is to one
who is not a Greek.14381438Serm., LXXIX. 1; Migne, p. 1163.

Rhapsodic expressions like these welled up in
exuberant abundance as Bernard spoke to his audiences at different
hours of the day in the convent of Clairvaux. They are marked by no
progress of thought. Aphoristic statement takes the place of logic. The
same spiritual experiences find expression over and over again. But the
treatment is always devout and full of unction, and proves the justice
of the title, "the honey-flowing doctor,"—doctor mellifluus
— given to the fervid preacher.

The mysticism of St. Bernard centres in Christ. It
is by contemplation of Him that the soul is filled with knowledge and
ecstasy. The goal which the soul aspires to is that Christ may live in
us, and our love to God become the all-controlling affection. Christ is
the pure lily of the valley whose brightness illuminates the mind. As
the yellow pollen of the lily shines through the white petals, so the
gold of his divinity shines through his humanity. Bethlehem and
Calvary, the birth and passion of Christ, controlled the
preacher’s thought. Christ crucified was the sum of his
philosophy.14391439Haec mea philosophia scire Jesum Christum et
hunc crucifixum.
Serm., XLIII. 4; Migne, p. 995.14401440Jesus mel in ore, in aure melos, in corde
jubilus.
Serm., XV. 6; Migne, p. 847.

Bernard was removed from the pantheistic
self-deletion of Eckart and the imaginative extravagance of St.
Theresa. From Madame Guyon and the Quietists of the seventeenth
century, he differed in not believing in a state of pure love in the
present life. Complete obedience to the law of love is impossible here
unless it be in the cases of some of the martyrs.14411441 See Vacandard, Vie de S. Bernard, II. 497, and Ries,
pp. 198 sq.ship of the disciples in the primitive Church who were
together with one heart and one soul, Acts 4:32. The union is not by a
confusion of natures, but by a concurrence of wills.14421442Unitas quam facit non confusio naturarum,
sed voluntatum consensio. Serm. in Cant., LXXI. 7; Migne, 183. 1124. Harnack,
whose treatment of St. Bernard is one of the most stirring chapters in
his Hist. of Doctrine, nevertheless says unjustly III. 304, that
Bernard’s mysticism naturally led to Pantheism. In Bernard
himself there is no trace of Pantheism. See Ries, pp. 190
sq.

1442Unitas quam facit non confusio naturarum,
sed voluntatum consensio. Serm. in Cant., LXXI. 7; Migne, 183. 1124. Harnack,
whose treatment of St. Bernard is one of the most stirring chapters in
his Hist. of Doctrine, nevertheless says unjustly III. 304, that
Bernard’s mysticism naturally led to Pantheism. In Bernard
himself there is no trace of Pantheism. See Ries, pp. 190
sq.